The Story
Picture the scene outside Bethany’s tomb. The stone has been rolled away. Jesus has called into the darkness, and impossibly, miraculously, a dead man has walked out into the light. The crowd stands frozen, breath held, hearts hammering. Lazarus is alive — genuinely, undeniably alive. And yet he cannot fully walk, cannot fully breathe, cannot fully see. He is wrapped from head to toe in the linen strips of burial. He is alive, but he is bound. It is at this precise moment that Jesus turns to the stunned onlookers and gives them their assignment: “Unbind him, and let him go.” The resurrection was Christ’s work alone. The unbinding, remarkably, was theirs.
The Biblical Truth
“The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Take off the grave clothes and let him go.'” John 11:44
This single verse carries a truth that reshapes how we understand both resurrection and community in Christ. Jesus, the Author of life, did not need help raising Lazarus — no one else could have done that. But once resurrection had occurred, Jesus deliberately chose not to do the unwrapping himself. He gave that sacred, tender work to the people standing right there. This was not an oversight. This was an invitation.
Resurrection is always Christ’s alone to give. New birth, forgiveness, eternal life — these flow entirely from his death and rising. But the ongoing work of walking freely in that new life? Scripture consistently shows us that this happens in the context of his body, the Church. We are called to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), confess to one another (James 5:16), and speak truth in love so that we all grow up into him (Ephesians 4:15). The unbinding of Lazarus is not merely a historical detail. It is a living picture of the Church’s calling.
Living It Out
Many of us know believers who are genuinely alive in Christ — saved, sealed, and loved by God — yet still shuffling around in their grave clothes. The strips of linen look different for each person: old shame that whispers you are still who you used to be, destructive habits carried over from a former life, identities built on wounds rather than on who God says you are. The resurrection has happened. The miracle is real. But without brothers and sisters willing to get close enough to help with the unwrapping, so many remain unnecessarily bound.
This is where the Church must be brave and tender in equal measure. Unbinding someone is intimate work. It requires proximity. You have to get close to someone still smelling of the tomb. You have to be patient, gentle, and persistent. It means speaking life over people when they can barely see past the cloth over their own face. It means creating communities where it is genuinely safe to say, “I am alive in Jesus, but I am still struggling with this.” That kind of honesty is only possible when the Church takes its unbinding calling seriously.
You Are Not Alone
If you are reading this still wrapped in something — shame, a broken past, a habit you cannot seem to shake free of — hear this clearly: Jesus has already called your name. You have already been raised. The grave does not have the final word over your life, and neither does whatever is still binding you. Christ is present, and he has placed people around you for exactly this purpose. Let them in. Let the Church do what Jesus commissioned it to do. And if you are the one with steady hands today, look around — someone near you is waiting to be unbound, and Jesus is asking you to help.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you that you are the resurrection and the life. Where we are still wrapped in old shame, old habits, or old identities, come and call us out into your light. Give us courage to let others close enough to help with the unbinding. And give us eyes to see those around us who are alive in you but still bound — make us the kind of community that gets close, that speaks life, and that helps people walk freely into everything you have already given them. For your glory alone, amen.
Is there an area where you are still wrapped in grave clothes? Share in the comments below, or send this post to someone you feel called to walk alongside. Resurrection and community in Christ were always meant to go together — let us be the Church that unbinds.